The “Night of Broken Glass”- The November of 1938 Begins the Nazi Reign of Terror
Posted: Monday, November 07, 2011
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
The unprecedented pogrom of November 9-10, 1938 in Germany has passed into history as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). The name does not communicate what happened on this night. At that time, the world was actually put on notice that the Violence against the Jews was going to enflame the world and kill millions upon millions in World War II.
Many Jews took note, and all were put on notice during this horrible period. Violent attacks on Jews and Judaism throughout the Reich and in the recently annexed Sudetenland began on November 8 and continued until November 11 in certain cities.
Aryanization Orders – The November Pogrom
Arrests.
Detention in Concentration Camps.
Declaring that Jews were “non-Aryans”.
What the Germans were about was the simple step-by-step extirpation of the Jewish people in Europe.
Jews Declared Non-Aryans and Begin Leaving Germany
The Jews took note, and the numbers fell by emigration to neighboring countries or overseas. In 1925 there were over a half million Jews in Germany; by May 1939, the number had fallen to around two hundred thousand. By the time the month of November was about to come around three years later in October 1941, there were only 164,000 Jews that were left within the Third Reich, including Austria.
The Nuremberg Laws--strongly established that the legal repression of excluding non-Aryans from public service was solidified through the high sounding Reich Citizenship Law. Compartmentalization through political means declared Jewish Germans and Aryan Germans were separate citizens.
Economic Exclusion
The ability of Jews to get an education, the viability of Jewish businesses was affected by these laws. COMMISARS who were in charge of “aryanization” were put in authority to take apart Jewish businesses. Opportunities for Jews were evaporating off the streets and cities of Germany.
This aryanization, a very vague word with powerful specific effects, had certain economic results. 340 middle-sized and small industrial enterprises, 370 wholesale firms, and 22 private banks owned by Jews were permanently altered, destroyed, taken over or liquidated.
The “Anschluss” Featured in the Musical “The Sound of Music” Impacted Austria
This Anschluss in Austria. This “take over” automatically turned the 200,000 Austrian Jews into the “aryanized” in this entire country. Within a short time, from January to October 1938, the Nazis aryanization took over. The November pogrom was the peak of a series of events intended to expel the Jews from economic life and to force a hurried emigration.
Turning economic power into wealth for Germans, under the decree of April 22, 1938, efforts were made against "continuing concealment of Jewish business activity," Jews were obliged to declare their assets--an indication that their possessions would be seized.
Declare Yourself a “Jewish Firm”
"Jewish Firm." This appellation summed up by Hermann Goring (then head of the ministry): in the Air Ministry guidelines of October 14, 1938 and were accompanied by a recommendation, "The Jewish question must now be grasped in every way possible, for they – The [Jews] must be removed from the economy."
A Top-Down Pogrom – Memories Evoked from November of 1923
Adolf Hitler used this time to frame a young Jewish boy for the death of Ernst Vom Rath. Goebbels used this event to unleash the Pogrom. They designed it around a traditional dinner for the "old fighters" of the Nazi movement, held in the assembly room of the Old Town Hall in Munich on the anniversary of the bloody march and the unsuccessful putsch of November 9, 1923.
In an unusually aggressive speech, which Hitler did not attend. The political propaganda initiative and management of the pogrom was in Goebbels' hands, though he held no written authority from Hitler.
It was all set up for hatred, revenge and virulent rage. The situation could not have been more contrived. In Munich but also among Nazi organizations throughout the country, where Germans awaited the radio transmission of the customary memorial celebration and Hitler's speech; the signal for retaliation had already been given by Goebbels, with Hitler's assent.
While the Fuhrer went to his Munich apartment, the propaganda minister told the Nazi notables and old fighters present that there had already been acts of revenge by the Jews. They declared that retribution was justified against State Enemy No. 1--the Jew. Synagogues and shops belonging to Jews had, he said, been destroyed. And of course, that was just the beginning.
The Gestapo
The Gestapo passed by telephone to the headquarters of the various districts and were followed by telegrams. At 1:20 a.m. on November 10 these transmission all became “official”.
Once Goebbels had given the Nazi district leaders the impetus to unleash a massive pogrom, the further initiative lay in their hands. The execution of the pogrom, under direction of the highest Nazi party leaders, was entrusted all of the German agencies from lower to higher by means of the latest communications technology. They used the telephone, teleprinters, police transmitters, and radio. And by these new technological instruments this allowed this “modern state” to begin this coordinated effort. Within a few hours the pogrom had reached almost every part of the Reich without meeting any resistance.
Destruction of Synagogues, Homes, Establishments
During the night of November 9-10, 1938 Jewish shops, dwellings, schools, and above all synagogues and other religious establishments symbolic of Judaism were set alight. Tens of thousands of Jews were terrorized in their homes, sometimes beaten to death, and in a few cases raped. A town with a rich Jewish tradition dating from the first century CE --- Cologne had four synagogues which were torched, shops were destroyed and looted, and male Jews were arrested and thrown into concentration camps.
Brutal events were recorded in the hitherto peaceful townships. In Hannover, the well-known Jewish neurologist Joseph Loewenstein got a warning, anonymously and he escaped the pogrom. His home, however, with all its valuables, was seized by the Nazis.
In Berlin, where 140,000 Jews still resided, nine of the 12 synagogues were devastated. Children from the Jewish orphanages were thrown out on the street. About 1,200 men were sent to concentration camp under "protective custody." The wrecked Jewish shops, most of them, did not open again.
“Free of Jews” and the “Ghetto Decree”
Following the Berlin pogrom the police president demanded the removal of all Jews from the northern parts of the city and declared this area "free of Jews." The “Ghetto Decree” on December 5 , 1938 meant that Jews could no longer live near government buildings.
Paving the Road to Auschwitz
The Germans were famous for keeping tremendously accurate records. The details on the Pogrom that began at the “Night of Broken Glass” were no exception. Note the following numbers, and see what stories they tell. At least 267 synagogues were burned down or destroyed, and in many cases the ruins were blown up and cleared away. Approximately 7,500 Jewish businesses were plundered or laid waste. At least 177 apartment blocks or houses were destroyed by arson or otherwise.
It has rightly been said that with the November pogrom, radical violence had reached the point of murder and so had paved the road to Auschwitz.
This was the last time that the Nazi power structure would feel it necessary to create and fabricate a ruse for the sake of public opinion. World War II’s opening was less than a year away, and the horror and destruction of world-wide conflict would be loosed upon the world. But on this November, the November of 1938, the “Night of Broken Glass” would be an indication that pure hell was about to be consume the Jews in Europe and in a broader way - that “broken glass” in the streets would be a minor manifestation of what was to come.
The Holocaust Encyclopedia (Yale University Press)
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Thank you for the details, that make the horror perpetuated against the Jews real to those of another generation. Too many want to deny the existance of that reality from WWII.
I read a book in the early 1980s called "The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow" by Constance Cumbie. The book prophetically spoke of the rise of Nazism in the latter days that are coming. We can see how Christians are being treated in various countries, as well as our own; also Israel's enemies are becoming more vocal. Christians, in the Bible, are declared Jewish 'by adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father"....do we have the courage of the Jewish people, who marched to death because of who they were ethnically, or will we be cowards who deny our Salvation to save ourselves?".I think the people of the world need to know what happened and how it happened in WWII, because I think there is a dearth of awareness about this topic.
Since ignorance is rife, that only sets up the potentialities for Fascism to arise again, no matter who becomes the victims.
I appreciate your comments and thanks very much for your notice.
The inhumanity of some - infamy and horror, pure and simple. You've detailed these horrors well, as unbelievable as it is. The military channel and national geographic has had many informative pieces and it is something that can never be forgotten. Yet when you see the inhumanity still occurring in some form or another in our present-day world, humans are not learning a whole lot. This is an excellent piece of work.Thanks very much for your comment. It was work and love, but not fun.
A really informative article. Great job.Thank you Arlene.
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